Pas De Deux (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #10 extract: Pas De Deux (1968)

Despite the unfortunately lacking soundtrack, Pas De Deux is a truly exquisite experimental short. It uses is a rippled stroboscopic effect with black and white cinematography to manipulate a couple's dance into movements through a fractured spacetime to conjure a mesmerising dream of motion. 

Building upon simpler shorts like Canon, which features a similar effect in its final phase, McLaren then demonstrates an immense skill to experiment with film form in an ingenious, yet instantaneously rewarding and aesthetically rich, capacity that, unlike many other experimental films, doesn't simply rely on concept.